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Home , Singular they, They

As and transgender issues have gained increasing attention in recent years, questions about how academic writing and communications reflect a range of gender identities and are inclusive of transgender people are also being raised. Most notably, the use of male and female (/him/his, /her/hers) is being challenged, and many activists argue for the acceptance and use of as an epicene—a gender-neutral singular pronoun (Clemens, 2016; Hollandback, 2016). Binary gendered pronouns (he/she) impose a binary view of gender that does not accord with the concept of the gender spectrum (Kilman, 2013), can cause psychological harm (Hidalgo, 2013), exceptionalizes trans identities, and reinscribes difference (Wooley, 2015, p. 376, 381). The gender spectrum has been accepted in neurology (Kranz, 2014), biology (Ainsworth, 2015), social work (Austin, 2016), psychology (American Psychological Association, 2015), psychiatry (Lim, 2015, p. 399), and women’s and gender studies. Accepting the use of in academic and professional writing is the responsible choice for social work and public health programs because recognizes the gender spectrum and aligns with the National Association of Social Workers’ (2008) core value of the “dignity and worth of the person” and the principle of treating “each person in a caring and respectful fashion, mindful of individual differences and cultural and ethnic diversity.”

Opposition to the use of singular they has been based on the notion that it is grammatically incorrect. However, from to , it was “the universal English pronoun for singular and , masculine and feminine” (Peck, 2010, p. 11) in common use by authors such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, the writers of the King James , Jane Austen, Walt Whitman, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and George Orwell. The generic he was imposed on the by Anne Fisher, a feminist grammarian and schoolteacher, in A New Grammar (1745), created a gender problem in trying to solve a number problem (O’Connor & Kellerman, 2009), and it spread because of the androcentrism of prescriptive grammarians (Bodine, 1975).

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Many governmental, academic, and journalistic organizations have responded to this issue by adopting the use of singular they: the Government of Ottawa and the Canadian Department of Justice (2015), a leading Australian legal (Federation Press, 2014), The Washington Post (Mullen, 2015), the (2015), Fowler’s Modern English Usage (O’Connor & Kellerman, 2009), The Baltimore Sun (McIntyre, 2015), Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (2016), the Oxford English Dictionary [c. 2016], Grammarly (2016), Harvard University as an option for students’ preferred pronouns, the American Psychological Association in the context of gender diversity (Lee, 2016), and many other leading authorities on contemporary English usage. Such usage authorities argue that singular they is grammatical, of long standing use, common, used by leading authors, becoming accepted, and likely the best solution for the problem of English’s lack of a formal epicene.

We recommend that Brown School accept and adopt, when possible, the use of singular they by students in course papers and other documents and in official communications. There is no comparable substitute. Pronouns such as e, hu, per, thon, yo, and ze have been proposed since at least 1850, but all have failed to find popular purchase, though the need for an epicene was declared to be “desperate, urgent, [and] imperative” in The Atlantic back in 1878 (Baron, 2010). Creating, choosing, or imposing an epicene has not worked yet, despite many efforts. But singular they has been in common use since the 14th century, and as linguist Geoffrey Numberg (2016) put it, “Everyone Uses Singular ‘They,’ Whether They Realize It Or Not.” Using he or she reinforces androcentrism and is not a viable substitute for an epicene (Gastil, 1990). Singular they is not cognitively problematic for nonreferential antecedents (e.g. everyone, someone) and is processed more quickly for indefinite antecedents than he or she (Foertsch & Gernsbacher, 1997).

Further, recommend the adoption and acceptance of themself as the singular instead of the plural themselves to accompany singular they. Themself is a word and was the standard non-gendered singular reflexive pronoun until around 1540 (Soanes, 2013), and it never entirely disappeared. Although themself is not as widely accepted as singular they, it is moving into creative and journalistic writing (Cary, 2014), particularly when referring to someone whose preferred pronoun is they (“Themself,” 2016). It is logical to maintain number consistency in pronouns, so themself as singular makes more sense than themselves, which is plural, as the reflexive pronoun for singular they as it increases the clarity of the number.

Because many readers will question the use of singular they in all its forms, we recommend that writers add a footnote upon first use in a document along these lines:

In this paper use singular they, their, and themself to recognize the concept of the gender spectrum in accordance with the American Psychological Association’s (2015) “Guidelines for Psychological Practice With Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People.”

And add an appropriate reference:

American Psychological Association. (2015). Guidelines for psychological practice with transgender and gender nonconforming people. American Psychologist, 70, 832–864. doi:10.1037/a0039906

Note: Wikipedia also offers a useful introduction to the topic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they

References

Ainsworth, C. (2015). Sex redefined. Nature, 518(7539), 288–291. Retrieved from http://www.nature.com/news/sex-redefined-1.16943 American Dialect Society. (2015). 2015 is singular “they” [Press release]. Retrived from http://www.americandialect.org/2015-word-of-the-year-is-singular-they American Psychological Association. (2015). Guidelines for psychological practice with transgender and gender nonconforming people. American Psychologist, 70, 832–864. doi:10.1037/a0039906 Asprey, M. M. (2003). Plain language for lawyers. Sydney, Australia: Federation Press. Austin, A., Craig, S. L., Alessi, E. J., Wagaman, M. A., Paceley, M. S., Dziengel, L., & Balestrery, J. E. (2016). Guidelines for transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) affirmative education: Enhancing the climate for TGNC students, staff and faculty in social work education. Alexandria, VA: Council on Social Work Education. Retrieved from http://www.cswe.org/File.aspx?id=94519 Baron, D. (2010, August 9). The gender-neutral pronoun: Still an epic(ene) fail. Retrieved from http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/ the-gender-neutral-pronoun-still-an- epicene-fail/ Bernhard, M. P. (2015, September 2). Students indicate preferred gender pronouns at registration. The Crimson. Retrieved from http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/9/2/registrar-adds-pgp-option/ Bodine, A. (1975). Androcentrism in prescriptive grammar: Singular they, sex-indefinite he, and he or she. Language in Society, 4(2), 129–146. doi:10.1017/s0047404500004607 Cary, S. (2014, January 23). The unsung value of singular ‘themself’ [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/the-unsung-value-of-singular-themself/ Clemens, C. L. (2016, February 25). Thanks to the “singular ‘they’” [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.tolerance.org/blog/thanks-singular-they Department of Justice, Government of Canada. (2015, January 7). Legistics: Singular "they." Retrieved from http://canada.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/csj-sjc/legis-redact/ legistics/p1p32.html Federation Press. (2013). Style guide for use in preparation of manuscripts. http://www.federationpress.com.au/StyleGuidelinesforFederationPress.pdf Foertsch, J., & Gernsbacher, M. A. (1997). In search of : Is singular they a cognitively efficient substitute for generic he? Psychological Science, 8(2), 106–111. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.1997.tb00691.x Gastil, J. (1990). Generic pronouns and sexist language: The oxymoronic character of masculine generics. Sex Roles, 23(11/12), 629–643. doi:10.1007/BF00289252 Haltinner, A., & Pilgeram, R. (Eds.). (2016). Teaching gender and sex in contemporary America. Basel, Switzerland: Springer. Hidalgo, M. A., Ehrensaft, D., Tishelman, A. C., Clark L. F., Garofalo R., Rosenthal, S. M., Spack N. P., & Olson J. (2013). The gender affirmative model: What we know and what we aim to learn. Human Development, 56(5), 285–290. doi:10.1159/000355235 Hollandbeck, A. (2016, May 4). Singular they, them, their, and . . . [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.copyediting.com/singular-they-them-their-and/

Kilman, K. (2013, Summer). The gender spectrum. Teaching Tolerance, 2013(44). Retrieved from http://www.tolerance.org/gender-spectrum Kranz, G. S., Hahn, A., Kaufmann, U., Küblböck, M., Hummer, A., Ganger, S., . . . Lanzenberger, R. (2014). White matter microstructure in transsexuals and controls investigated by diffusion tensor imaging. Journal of Neuroscience, 34(46), 15466–15475. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2488-14.2014 Lee, C. (2015, November). The use of singular “they” in APA style [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2015/11/the-use-of-singular-they-in-apa-style.html Lim, R. F. (Ed.). (2015). Clinical manual of cultural psychiatry (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing McIntyre, J. E. (2015, January 1). Everyone goes their own way [Blog post]. The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved from http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/language-blog/ bal-everyone-goes- their-own-way-20150106-story.html Mora, C. (2016, September 1). What is the singular they, and why should I use it? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.grammarly.com/blog/use-the-singular-they/ Mullin, B. (2015, December 1). The Washington Post will allow singular “They” [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.poynter.org/2015/the-washington-post-will-allow-singular- they/ 387542/ National Association of Social Workers. (2008). Code of ethics of the National Association of Social Workers. Retrieved from http://www.socialworkers.org/pubs/code/code.asp Nunberg. G. (2016, January 13). Everyone uses singular “they,” whether they realize it or not. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2016/01/13/462906419/ everyone-uses-singular-they- whether-they-realize-it-or-not O’Connor, P., & Kellerman, S. (2009, July 26). All-purpose pronoun. New York Times Magazine. Retrieved from www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/magazine/26FOB-onlanguage- t.html Peck, F. (2010). Gender-neutral writing (Part 1): The pronoun problem. Language Update, 7(4), 11. Retrieved from http://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2guides/guides/ favart/index- fra.html?lang=fra&lettr=indx_titls&page=9mtUeINzyZ1E.html Singular they. (2016). [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at- play/singular-nonbinary-they Soanes, C. (2013, January 15). Is “themself” a real word? [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/01/themself/ Themself. (2016). Themself: Is it ever okay to say “themself”? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/Themself They. [ca. 2016]. In The Oxford English dictionary. Retrieved from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/they Wooley, S. (2015). Boys over here, girls over there”: A critical literacy of binary gender in schools. Transgender Studies Quarterly, 2(3), 376–394. doi:10.1215/23289252-2926369